Rambling Thoughts On Bucs Night Practice
August 6th, 2011
OK, Joe got back from the night practice and has cracked open his first beer of the evening — it won’t be his last.
Joe’s got photos he will post tomorrow, sorry for the fuzzy cheerleader photo above but Joe thought his readers will overlook how it’s slightly out of focus.
Some random thoughts on the night practice.
* Joe wrote this last year and he will repeat it tonight: Thank you Team Glazer for putting this together. It was a blast last year and it was equally enjoyable this evening. Shoot, even the players did their best to delay getting on the bus back to the team hotel so they could watch the fireworks.
Last year Joe decided to be just a fan and swilled lowered-priced beer. Tonight, Joe was on the sidelines.
Just a great night no matter where anyone was. Seeing Bucs players competing against one another was fun and everyone knows they were going all out because egos were involved.
* Not to stray too far from football, but Joe is happy that multimedia mastermind Scott Smith took Joe’s advice and hired former Bucs cheerleader Tiffany Jimenez to be a video host at tonight’s event. Joe wrote this before when the Bucs had her do video features: There are certain lasses that are made for the camera and it’s not their looks, but their personalities. Tiffany’s bubbly personality just jumps off the computer screen. She really should be working TV in some capacity like a co-host of one of these weekday morning gabfest shows or perhaps a game show. (“A new car!”)
Joe stands up and gives Smith a standing ovation. Nice. And to Tiffany, keep up the good work. You really should find yourself an agent. Sadly, Joe is not an agent.
* Joe was pleased to watch defensive backs hitting each other during drills and wrapping up. In each hit in this drill, a defensive back pretended to be a ball carrier. When the defenders hit the ball carrier, each time the defender wrapped up.
When Joe was in high school his coach, who had just retired from the Cowboys (Gene Stallings was Joe’s coach’s position coach), pounded that drill into our heads daily and if we didn’t wrap up, we ran. It drives Joe bananas that NFL defenders don’t wrap up. Good to see Bucs coaches have the players utilizing wrapping up in these drills.
* In wide receiver/cornerback competitions, Mike Williams couldn’t shake Aqib Talib. In another, Preston Parker had E.J. Biggers beat bad but Biggers turned on the rocket booster, made up the real estate and picked off a pass. Nice.
* During a scrimmage, Allen Bradford made a nice grab over the middle of a Josh Johnson pass for about eight yards and tried to elude defenders by running to the left sideline, running right at Joe. Bradford got totally lit up near the sideline by Adam Hayward and fumbled and Talib nearly had a fumble recovery but the ball rolled out of bounds.
* Joe at one point was standing five feet behind defensive tackles coach Keith Millard and there’s only one word to describe Millard: Intense. Every play was like a goal line stand to win the Super Bowl. When his tackles got pressure on the quarterback, Millard would react like he won the lottery, jumping up and down like a little kid on Christmas morning who just got a new bike from Santa.
Mind you, this is a practice, not even a preseason game much less a regular season game.
* Johnson made a pretty touchdown pass to Ryan Purvis but it really wasn’t fair. Quarterbacks are not allowed to be touched and Johnson was surrounded by three defenders. If this were a game, Johnson would have been buried alive.
* Adrian Clayborn is damned quick off the snap.
* Are fans, by way of the fourth estate, seeing a change in Bryan Glazer? Normally reserved, Glazer held court with a mob of reporters and later did a live TV interview with Rock Reilly and Out House Networks.
Joe can say this: If people think Team Glazer doesn’t care about wins and losses, think again. But they are committed to Mark Dominik and share in his beliefs and philosophy. Don’t expect the team to go wilding on the free agent market until Dominik believes the time is right to plug in a hole or two.
Patience, fans, patience.
In the meantime, have fun watching the Bucs. Joe, and tens of thousands did tonight.
August 6th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Very nice write up and a nicer event.
August 6th, 2011 at 11:42 pm
I can see this team, coaches and front office growing together. I will hate the day when other teams will eventually start raiding the bucs coaches.
August 7th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Tonight’s event was superb, not to mention well attended. For all the crap the Glazer family takes, much of it class envy-oriented, they continue to show that they are committed to winning another Super Bowl in this town. I like what I see on the field and am confident these Bucs will do well in 2011. All in all, a great night out this evening for a guy with two sons.
August 7th, 2011 at 12:17 am
Joe,
I am disappointed. Very disappointed in this article. You named a former Bucs cheerleader and did not link a picture. Jeez man.
Sincerely,
RichinNC
Thanks for the coverage of the practice for those who could not make it due to being a few hundred miles away. And glad to hear that the db’s are learning how to use there arms when tackling and not just shoulders.
August 7th, 2011 at 12:24 am
Thanks for the info Joe!
It would have been great to attend but sadly, I live in Miami. You’ve led me to crack open a beer as well. Can’t wait till next Friday since the game will be nationally televised.
August 7th, 2011 at 12:28 am
Drove in from WPalm for the practice, they looked great, hada great time, can’t wait for the season to begin.
August 7th, 2011 at 12:35 am
RichinNC:
Oh, Joe got a photo of Tiffany, who is as sweet a person as she is pretty.
But as Joe stated, he will edit the photos tomorrow. To pass the time, perhaps this will suffice?
August 7th, 2011 at 1:34 am
Nice coverage joe
August 7th, 2011 at 7:50 am
I watched the glazer rock reilly interview. The only thing I learned is that the plan is to stay young (errrrrrr cheap). Dom and rah were also interviewed, I dont know if it were the softball questions or if they were distracted by the event but virtually no new information was shared.
My contact at practice said that the defense looked sluggish and behind the offense. I hear that foster is way behind mckenzie.
August 7th, 2011 at 8:35 am
Yes that will do very nicely.
August 7th, 2011 at 9:39 am
Was. . . Sorry for the poor grammar above
August 7th, 2011 at 10:11 am
I know OldSchool estimated about 25K fans in attendance…. It’s nice to note that they actually had to open up the club level to accomodate fans. I would wager that it was double the attendance of last year. It was great to see such an improved fan turnout.
August 7th, 2011 at 10:17 am
Still with complaining and unwarranted criticism, T2.2″ little punk bitch.
I said I’d stop when you stop, you said (errrrr cheap) which there was nothing Cheap about what the Glazers did last night.
1)Free Beer on the North End. Free Beer I said. Plenty of it, small glasses, but as much as you wanted.
2) Dollar Dogs, Cokes, half price beer for those that couldn’t find the glory hole.
3) Excellent Fireworks Display and free tickets as prizes.
4) I saw Thousands of children getting autographs, meeting players, & having a blast. That is priceless.
SO the Bottom line Thomas “punk bitch” 2’2 I will continue to attack you at every turn on this site, until you stop posting lies, hate and BS about our team. I hope you will stop, I offered you a truce but you have refused. I will hate on you every chance I get and I hope others will continue to do the same until you leave or grow up. POS MF DH
August 7th, 2011 at 11:05 am
What did five fingers say to the face?
August 7th, 2011 at 11:23 am
This event was great! The fireworks display was the best I have seen in years. Reduced prices was great too. Also, if our receivers drove golf carts Rudy would be the man!